Obama on Michael Moore’s Turf

It was completely symbolic. Obama chose Flint, the city of General Motors, known globally from Michael Moore’s film, Roger and Me, as his location for presenting the great axes of classic liberal politics.

Since Moore’s film was made, the city continues to be stuck in stagnation, haunted by the disappearance of relocated automobile factories, an unemployment rate of 9.3% – one of the highest in the United States – a decline in purchasing power, and an increase in the cost of health insurance and higher education. Obama described the symptoms of deterioration in front of a thousand citizens. The remedy he proposed to them had three points: a boost to the education system, an intelligent strategy for energy, and new investments in research and infrastructure. He told them, “These are the pillars of a more competitive economy that will take advantage of the global market’s opportunities…. I believe in free trade.”

“We have to be sure that the pie is divided more fairly, but we also have to be sure that the economic pie is growing.” For the democratic candidate, “not only is it impossible to reverse the tide of globalization, but opposing it would have even worse effects.”

Obama added: “America won’t be able to compete if costs cause the Big Three [automobile manufacturers] to spend $1,500 in social contributions for every car.” He proposed universal medical coverage, in which government funds would replace business contributions. The fact that owners of automobile companies pay for the social benefits of all employees is one of the social victories that resulted from the Second World War. The problem is, companies are paying the costs of private insurance, whose premiums have become exorbitant. This forces the Big Three to pressure unions and the government to reduce or eliminate their social expenditures in the name of competitiveness.

Obama repeated that new jobs will come from the skills obtained through the development of education, a massive influx of new teachers, the development of alternative energy (which according to him would create 5 million jobs), and of research to launch the Microsofts and Googles of tomorrow.

“We can choose to rise together. But it won’t be easy. Every one of us will have to work at it by studying hard, training more rigorously, working smarter, and thinking anew… It is time to unite,” Obama concluded, “in common purpose and to make this century the next American century.”